Dominican Volunteer Teaching: Classroom Spanish, Discipline Words & Cultural Bridges
“¡Profe, se acabó la tiza!” Ten nine-year-olds were shouting at me, a lanky gringo with a half-erased chalk mustache, the day I began volunteer teaching on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. I froze, searching my head for the right comeback. I knew how to ask for chalk in textbook Spanish, yet my brain […]
Reading the Forest: How Dominican Hiking-Trail Signage Turned Into My Favorite Spanish Classroom
El Punto de Partida: A Muddy Morning in Los Haitises The story begins with red mud clinging to my boots and a stubborn sprinkle of Caribbean rain. I had driven three hours from Santo Domingo to the Los Haitises National Park entrance, craving solitude after a busy workweek. At dawn, the rangers lifted the wooden […]
Haggling for Home: Dominican Extended-Stay Hotels, Weekly Rates, and the Art of Sounding Local
Last August, after my fourth fill-up of Presidente beer and bachata at El Conde, I realized I had burned through half my housing budget for the month. That’s what happens when you land in Santo Domingo for what’s supposed to be a long research weekend and end up staying six weeks. The solution was obvious: […]
Dominican Cat-Café Visits: Ordering Drinks & Adopting Pets in Spanish
El cafecito that almost clawed my ego My first week in Santo Domingo, a decade ago, I walked into “Garras y Tazas,” the island’s pioneer cat-café, thinking my basic survival phrases would suffice. I greeted the barista with an overconfident “Hola, ¿puedo tener un cappuccino?” and was met with a polite grin that said cute, […]
Colombian Antique-Store Shopping: Asking About Provenance Like a Local
How a Wobbly Wooden Chair Started My Obsession Ten years in the Dominican Republic will teach any gringo how to admire a beach chair, but I didn’t expect that a half-broken rocker in Bogotá would catapult me into a new layer of how to learn Spanish. I remember the scene vividly: dusky afternoon light, the […]
How a Dominican Decade Prepared Me for Colombia’s Civil-Registry Circus
There I was, clutching a sweaty ticket that said turno 283 in a Medellín notaría, wondering whether the ceiling fans were actually pushing time backward. Ten years in the Dominican Republic had taught me patience—after all, the phrase “ahora mismo” on the island sometimes means “before sunset.” Yet this was my first Colombian quest for […]
Dominican Car Wash Small Talk: “Lavado Completo”, “Brillado”, and Tips
Suds and Stories at the Dominican Car Wash I still remember the first Saturday I rolled my dusty Toyota Yaris into Auto Lavado Don Pepe in Santiago de los Caballeros. Ten years in the Dominican Republic have taught me that a car wash is never just a car wash—it is an impromptu barbershop, a gossip […]
Writing a Colombian Carta de Invitación: Spanish Letter-Writing Power for Visiting Friends
Back in 2016 I was sweating in the immigration line at El Dorado airport, clutching my best friend Mateo’s handwritten carta de invitación. The agent raised an eyebrow the moment he spotted my gringo last name. One smooth sentence later—“Él va a hospedarse en mi apartamento en Chapinero y yo cubro todos sus gastos”—and the […]
From Craigslist Rookie to Barrio Pro: Posting Classified Ads in Medellín Without Sounding Like a Gringo
La primera vez que vendí mi air-fryer en Medellín I still remember the hum of Avenida 33 as I walked to a tiny copy shop to print the photo of my once-beloved air-fryer. Ten years in the Dominican Republic had stuffed my brain with merengue lyrics and playful doble sentido, yet that morning in Medellín […]
Ordering Allergy-Friendly Delights in Colombia: A Street-Level Guide to Vegan & Gluten-Free Spanish
From Peanut Panic to Pastel de Quinoa: My First Allergen Adventure I still remember the day my Dominican landlord, Doña Lidia, handed me an invitation to her niece’s birthday. “James, tráete un bizcocho vegano, pero sin gluten,” she said, waving her hands as if the words themselves might give her hives. Ten years in Santo […]